Clarifying questions: timeline

This is indeed true.

There is not single question you "must" ask. Rather, every case is different. You need to ask questions that help you better understand the situation (objective, business model, etc). AND help you narrow your scope and focus your framework.

If there's no specific timeline there's no specific timeline.

Let me add to this - please don't ask timeline questions just for the sake of asking timeline questions. If, for example, the prompt is "We've seen an increase in demand and need to ramp up production", asking for timelines is silly...we know the answer to be ASAP. If you ask timelines, you both waste a question and show you don't think critically about problems!

I'll repeat: You need to ask questions that help you better understand the situation (objective, business model, etc). AND help you narrow your scope and focus your framework.

Hi there,

Good questions at the beginning are related to:

• Goal clarification and constraints of the client to achieve the goal
• Understand how the revenue model of the client works
• Clarify the elements that are not clear in the prompt

The timeline would fall under the 1st category and it is always fine to ask for it. If the client wants to increase revenues as much as possible (without any specific target number), it would still be useful to know if there is a timeline, so that you can compare for each possible option which one could provide more revenues within that timeframe.

Best,

Francesco

Absolutely timeline is important specially in a business situation case. There is a problem and solutions need to be put in place in the immediate or short term , medium-term or long-term. There is no such thing as no defined timeline for a business problem.

Sometimes this is obvious in the case prompt so no need to explicitly ask but if its not clear there is no harm in clarifying the timeline.

You should judge this yourself by the case context. If you feel you need to understand this to get to the most helpful conclusion for the client, then ask. Don't ask any questions just out of habit even if they don't fit to the case context. Many people just go through their standard questions, even if they have already heard that the direction is irrelevant. In that case you'll get significant negative points as you're clearly not trying to understand the case, but just following your rehearsed schematic.